NYFW is not for everyone.

Fashion content creators get a few weeks off post-holidays, until the fashion weeks hit. Here is my PSA:

New York Fashion Week is not for everyone.

Cue the gasps, and yes, I am saying this as a blogger myself, but bloggers: stop ruining it for everyone.

Now, hear me out before you press send on the hate email or send me a tweet @_Jeremiah_. Fashion week once was a sacred time for fashion. It was the reason so many fell in love with the industry. It has since turned into an opportunity for every domain-card-carrying-member to flood the public space in front of Lincoln Center. Thus, I am in full support of taking NYFW back to its roots: smaller shows in the tent.

As a young, fashionable kid, I dreamed of walking into one of the white tents in Bryant Park. I loved the images of editors, dressed in head to toe black, waiting for the show to start and hoped to be someday be one of them. Most of the dream was fueled because I knew I would never get an invite to a coveted seat to a show in the tents. Fashion week was elitist but special, and I will be the first to be honest and say that the elitism of fashion is what made the whole event exciting to me.The seats were reserved for the editors of most of my favorite mags, industry insiders, celebrities, and socialites. Fashion week gave me my first look at the iconic red hair of Grace Coddington, and I did not have a problem with waiting for the Conde Nast publications to show me the seasonal trends.

Then came the forward-thinking designers, who realized the importance of professional bloggers. No longer would a designer have to wait until the next publishing cycle to hope to find a piece on their collection in a glossy. The right (influential) blogger could get the collection to tens of thousands in the matter of a couple clicks. No longer would designers have to wait. But then, the blogging culture at NYFW grew out of control. Other “bloggers” would see the likes of Bryanboy, and feel entitled because they, too, write about fashion in their corner of the web.

Here’s the thing: don’t feel like you have to cover fashion week because you blog or write about fashion. Use fashion week as a resource, not a source of your blog content. Ditch doing the same fashion week coverage that so many other bloggers are also doing (not to mention, there are many who do a really great job already). Find your own way of talking about what is happening on the runway. You don’t even have to be one of the vultures who are threatening the future of fashion week by crowding the sidewalks and bugging PR reps at the shows.

If you do make the pilgrimage to NY for the holy high season of fashion week, do some research and find an up and coming designer. You might not get a glorified gift bag of marketing material, but you will see some great fashion from a designer who is literally putting it all on the line. Unlike the amount of money large designers spend on their shows, emerging designers are hosting, producing, and funding their own shows. You get raw and passionate fashion. These are the shows that bloggers should be fighting to see. Bloggers used to be known as the outlets passionate about finding unique, emerging, and influential culture. Blogging shouldn’t be about trying to go to a show to say you were there, or to get free stuff.

For many bloggers, myself included, the chance to take regular trips to NYC is pretty rare. Those bloggers that you see getting the trips to NY and behind the scenes access, is because of their solid portfolio of creative content. Here is a secret: if you look around Indy, you just might find enough to write about. Social media is making it possible to cover the event better than if you were actually at the show. Not only will you be writing unique content, but also engaging with a local industry that is on the verge of awesome. Trust me: you will want to cover it now to document the fashion revolution in Indy.

Over two years ago I wrote my first piece for the Indianapolis Fashion Collective, now known as Pattern. Little did I know that I probably should have written about the emerging fashion industry professional in Indy. Fast forward a few years, and Pattern has published four amazing issues of their magazine. It is a grassroots magazine that is now being distributed around the world, so Indy’s fashion industry is going global.

So don’t feel left out by not being one of the other randoms hoping to get noticed at NYFW; you can cover it virtually. Better yet, start looking at your own city. You just might be surprised what can happen. Maybe I will even see you sharing your perspective in a future issue of PATTERN.

What do you think about NYFW and the relationship with bloggers? Are bloggers bringing down the stage known as New York Fashion Week? Comment below with your thoughts or connect with Pattern or myself on Twitter: @Patternindy and @_Jeremiah_ .